The DSM-IV is a standard diagnostic tool used by mental health professionals worldwide to promote reliable research, accurate diagnosis, and thus appropriate treatment and patient care. Each psychiatric disorder with its corresponding diagnostic code is accompanied by a set of diagnostic criteria and descriptive details including associated features, prevalence, familial patterns, age-, culture-, and gender-specific features, and differential diagnosis.

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.00 Autistic Disorder

A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1), and one each from (2) and (3):

qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction

a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)

lack of social or emotional reciprocity

qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following:
delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)

in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others

stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language

lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level

restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus

Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years: (1) social interaction, (2) language as used in social communication, or (3) symbolic or imaginative play.

The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett’s Disorder or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.80 Asperger's Disorder

Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction

The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).

There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia.

For more information on Asperger’s Disorder, see one of the following:

This category should be used when there is a severe and pervasive impairment in the development of reciprocal social interaction associated with impairment in either verbal or nonverbal communication skills or with the presence of stereotyped behavior, interests, and activities, but the criteria are not met for a specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, Schizotypal Personality Disorder, or Avoidant Personality Disorder. For example, this category includes "atypical autism" - presentations that do not meet the criteria for Autistic Disorder because of late age at onset, atypical symptomatology, or subthreshold symptomatology, or all of these.

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.80 Rett's Disorder

All of the following:

apparently normal prenatal and perinatal development

apparently normal psychomotor development through the first 5 months after birth

normal head circumference at birth

Onset of all of the following after the period of normal development:

deceleration of head growth between ages 5 and 48 months

loss of previously acquired purposeful hand skills between 5 and 30 months with the subsequent development of stereotyped hand movements (e.g., hand-wringing or hand washing)

loss of social engagement early in the course ( although often social interaction develops later)

Diagnostic Criteria for 299.10 Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

Apparently normal development for at least the first 2 years after birth as manifested by the presence of age-appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication, social relationships, play, and adaptive behavior.

Clinically significant loss of previously acquired skills (before age 10 years) in at least two of the following areas:

expressive or receptive language

social skills or adaptive behavior

bowel or bladder control

play

motor skills

Abnormalities of functioning in at least two of the following areas:

qualitative impairment in social interaction (e.g., impairment in nonverbal behaviors, failure to develop peer relationships, lack of social or emotional reciprocity)

qualitative impairments in communication (e.g., delay or lack of spoken language, inability to initiate or sustain a conversation, stereotyped and repetitive use of language, lack of varied make-believe play)

restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interest, and activities, including motor stereotypes and mannerisms

The disturbance is not better accounted for by another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or by Schizophrenia